The Duke Energy Center is a 786 feet (240 m) tall, 48-floor (54 floors including mechanical floors) skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina. When completed in 2010, it was the largest building in Charlotte (in square footage), second tallest building in Charlotte, and the tallest in the world to use precast double tees built by Prestress of the Carolinas.[3][4] The building is named for its anchor tenant, Duke Energy, and both the tower and the adjacent cultural arts campus are owned by Wells Fargo.

Sonnenschein will use 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) on the 34th and 35th floors and Deloitte will use 82,000 square feet (7,600 m2).[5][6][7]

Originally, the building was to be known as the Wachovia Corporate Center. It was to replace One Wachovia Center as the headquarters of Wachovia. Wachovia was to occupy 450,000 square feet (42,000 m2)[8] of the 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m2) tower. Wells Fargo plans to use five of its 14 floors.[2]

The project was announced in spring of 2004, and official renderings were not released until December 6, 2006. In the original petition to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, the building was going to be built on a 1.29-acre (5,200 m2) parcel next to 400 South Tryon, with a height of 510 feet (160 m) and 34 floors. The site preparation began with the demolition of a Firestone Tire dealership in February 2006, and on February 28, 2006, the excavation and blasting of a 100-foot (30 m)-deep hole for the below-grade parking garage began. Over 600,000 pounds of explosives were used during its excavation and it took just over 60,000 dump truck loads to remove all of the excavated material from the site, some of which was used in the construction of a third runway at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.[9]

The building was constructed by Batson-Cook Construction, with ready mix products from Concrete Supply Co. and structural engineering firm TRC International Ltd, of Sarasota, Florida. The building is using poured-in-place concrete core and perimeter and precast double tees, a structure usually used in parking decks. These double trees span between the poured-in-place core and perimeter systems. The concrete used for the building is 18,000 pounds per square inch.[10]

The building received a certificate of occupancy December 23, 2009, with the lobby and parking garage opening January 2, 2010.[2]

The facade of the structure is illuminated by hundreds of programmable color changing LED and metal halide luminaires with design work by Gabler-Youngston Architectural Lighting Design. The facade lighting system provides various shows and effects. Highly visible over the east corner of Bank of America Stadium, the lighting show is used during key moments of sporting events played there. For example, if the Carolina Panthers are playing it may light up blue. For the 2011 ACC Championship game, the building displayed orange and purple lighting for Clemson University and red and orange for Virginia Tech.

In 2011, the Duke Energy Center will welcome several new retail tenants to the building including world-renowned Chef Emeril Lagasse, who will open a new restaurant on the ground floor. The building will also welcome Flex + Fit, a new-concept health club featuring an on-site instructional cooking kitchen and an a la carte approach to cutting-edge fitness classes.

Duke Power chief executive Bill Lee had put together the property in the 1990s, intending to build Duke's headquarters there, but the company dropped its plans and sold the land to Wachovia.[12]

The first floor of the building was to contain the main lobby and elevators. The second floor was to have Wachovia's server room. The third floor would have been occupied by training areas during the day and classrooms at night. This area was to have been shared by Wachovia and Wake Forest University, which it was to use it for its MBA courses. Floors four through seven were to contain the trading floor. It would have taken up 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2) and housed approximately 750 traders per floor.[10] Wachovia would also have used floors 36 through 48. After Wells Fargo announced its purchase of Wachovia, Duke (by this time called Duke Energy) more than doubled the space it planned to use from 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2) to 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) and the name changed to Duke Energy Center. In addition to the upper floors Wachovia would have used, Duke planned to use floors 15 through 22. Wells Fargo, which still owned the building,[13] planned to occupy five of its 14 floors late in 2010. KPMG and Katten Muchin Rosenman moved into the building in February 2010, while Duke Energy moved later in 2010.[2]